


Shared Custody?

by afteriwake



Series: The Rom-Com We Deserve [1]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animal Shelter, Animals, Charming Jaime Lannister, Coffee and Conversation, Compromise, Developing Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth, F/M, First Meetings, Handshakes, POV Jaime Lannister, Pet Adoption, Pet Owner Brienne of Tarth, Shared Custody of a Pet, Skeptical Brienne of Tarth, Starting Over
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 18:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21342502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: When Jaime decides he needs to make some changes to his life, he decides to start by taking the responsibility to take care of someone other than himself and adopt a dog. But when he gets to the shelter, it turns out the dog he has in mind has some claim. What he proposes to the previous partial owner, a woman named Brienne, surprises them both.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Series: The Rom-Com We Deserve [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538578
Comments: 12
Kudos: 60





	Shared Custody?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dreamin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamin/gifts).

> So **Dreamin** and I came up with the bare bones of this series by talking about how great it would be to have Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Gwendoline Christie do a romcom together. One thing led to another and I got asked to write this out, even though I'm only on the fringes of the GoT fandom. I hope you all enjoy their meet-cute and whatever else I do for this (which may involve other characters and ships).

Jaime wasn’t sure what had brought him to this particular shelter. It wasn’t anywhere near home, not that he was _trying_ to be near home these days. His brother liked his drinks a bit much, his sister...the less said about her the better...and now with the death of his father, he had a chance to spread his wings. And part of spreading his wings, it seemed, was to get something to take care of. And obviously, it needed to be something majestic, not a plant his black thumb could kill in twenty minutes.

When he had seen the ad for the borzoi that had been abandoned to the shelter and was up for adoption, he had thought for sure he had been the only one interested. Too much for his original family, Jaime had been told. Sounded a bit like him and his siblings. And then he got there today to pick him up and found he _wasn’t_ the only one interested in the dog.

“Look, I’m here, I have the adoption fees and...it was my parent’s dog but if they’d just _told_ me they were putting Hercules up here...” He watched as the tall blonde woman trailed off as the shelter attendant nodded to him. He knew the name of the dog was Hercules, but as much as he was drawn to the dog, this woman seemed to have some claim to ownership.

“Sir, how can I help you?”

“I was here to meet Hercules, but--”

As soon as Jaime spoke the woman rounded on him, and he was struck not just by her presence but by her eyes. He could get lost in those eyes, he realized, but she wasn’t in the mood for fancy words.

She wanted the dog.

“Could we share custody?” he found himself asking.

“What do you mean?” the blonde woman asked, her eyes narrowing.

“I felt a kinship with the dog. And I wanted to adopt him. But you have one, too. It’s unseemly to disrupt that. So I pay part of the adoption fees, you pay part and say, I have visitation rights?”

“Ma’am, we could do that,” the shelter attendant said. “We could put Mr. Lannister’s address on the chip, but you both could share the dog?”

“I’ll pay all the fees and he can live with you if I get him on weekends,” Jaime said.

The woman thought it over for a moment and then pocketed her small wad of cash back into a wallet held to her belt loop by a chain. “Alright…?”

“Jaime,” he said, extending his hand. “Jaime Lannister.”

“Brienne Tarth,” she said. Her hair was cut short, not in one of those stylish ‘I want to speak to a manager’ styles but cut short for function. He had the feeling if it was longer it would curl a bit. Her nails were short, and he could see she worked with her hands, but when she took his hand her skin was soft. “Are you serious about this?”

He nodded. “I’m making changes, and maybe taking the dog was too big a choice, but I spent time with him earlier this week and he’s...adorable, I’d say.”

A small smile crept upon her face. “He is. My idiotic parents had a tiny apartment and never took him out, but I have a bigger place and I work from home. I would have gladly taken Herc if they had just told me.”

“And you should,” he said. “I’d like to spend time with him, though. Supervised, of course.”

She cocked her head to the side slightly. “What makes you think I won’t take him and tell you to bugger off?”

“You’re a lady of honor, I think. You give your word and you mean it,” he said.

She studied him some more and then gave his hand a firm shake before letting go. “Alright then, Jaime. We can do a shared custody arrangement.”

“Then let’s go get our boy,” he said with a grin, eliciting one from her as well. He paid the fees and had the information put in her name, as he said it was only right, and then when Herc came out, the dog bounded between them both and loved on them equally. Jaime took a leash and put it on the dog, and then handed the leash to Brienne.

“At least let me get you a cup of coffee,” she said as she took the leash. “I mean, you didn’t have to put my address down for Herc’s address.”

He reached down and patted Herc on the head. “I think coffee would be a good start while we lay out an agreement.” He looked over at her and saw some real beauty in her facial expression. Maybe he’d get more than he bargained for with the trip to the shelter after all...


End file.
